It is of the utmost importance in the interests of cost, conservation and pollution control to obtain optimum efficiency in burning fuel oil and other petroleum products. To this end, there have been proposals for mixing various amounts of water with fuel oil in order to promote combustion efficiency. These proposals have included the use of chemicals to provide oil emulsions, supersonic sound waves, catalysts, electric currents and mechanical mixing, all to promote and retain the mixture of oil and water.
A serious problem with some such mixtures has been separation of the oil and water during storage or transportation of the oil and water mixture, and also thickening of the mixture in cold temperatures. Moreover, methods and apparatus for mixing large quantities of oil and water have proven cumbersome, expensive, or both, and have not been efficient or economically feasible.